Was out of town for a couple of weeks, so haven't done any cooking for a while. Tonight, it was pork tenderloin rubbed with the Hell's Kitchen Rib Rub (from their cookbook) and roasted. That was served with mashed potatoes and broccolini that was sauteed with garlic and balsamic. A quick but satisfying Friday night dinner.

A nice hunk of Bucheron with crusty Marco Polo bread and a really nice, cheap, Loire Sauvignon Blanc while watching the Orioles lose to the Yanks....the food, wine and game were very good although the O's lost. Did I mention that the O's lost?

The main course was red snapper fillet cajun style, fried on the skin with stewed grape tomatoes, fried okra, polenta disks and fresh coconut meat. The yello habanero chili in the fish sauce was the hottest I've ever had and so was the sauce. Washed down with a DO 2011 Gewürztraminer from Alto Adige Selezione Elena Walch

"...To undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all tastes and smells form their harmonies." -- Robert Farrar Capon

Since I turned 72 today, I am cooking a beef fillet roast, with stuffed baked potatoes (both are much loved family recipes) roasted asparagus with hazelnut oil and lemon zest, and thick sliced mushrooms sautéed in butter and brandy. Gene and I went for dinner to a local bistro last night and it was very good. Next week, a favorite couple is coming to spend the weekend (our youngest son's in-laws) and we are going to Anselmo Vineyards for dinner to celebrate two birthdays, mine (again) and our son's mom-in-law. I love multiple celebrations with family and loved friends!

I made my first real Gumbo tonight. Fussed with the roux -- then added a mix of Andouille sausage and Kielbasa -- then some shrimp and crab meat. I had assumed I could buy a pound of crab meat at Costco. Not there. So I stopped at H-Mart (Korean supermarket) and bought half a dozen lively blue crabs. Louise and I picked them after steaming. You can't specifically tell that this gumbo has crab in it but I am sure it contributes to the general deliciousness. I also made a stock using the shells and some skin from the Steelhead filets we had last night, pretty interesting.

I hadn't tried gumbo before because I thought I didn't like Okra. I've discovered that I love it and I'm working through okra recipes. Last week it was a Turkish stew with tomato, onion and okra. Super tasty, a definite repeat! My vegetarian son really loved it.

What started today as a simple roasted turkey and potatoes meal turned into a full Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional extras, one month in advance. It was good, as will the leftovers be for the next three or so days.

Karen/NoCA wrote:Wow, that is some lunch! Beautiful...I had an apple;)

Since I turned 72 today, I am cooking a beef fillet roast, with stuffed baked potatoes (both are much loved family recipes) roasted asparagus with hazelnut oil and lemon zest, and thick sliced mushrooms sautéed in butter and brandy. Gene and I went for dinner to a local bistro last night and it was very good. Next week, a favorite couple is coming to spend the weekend (our youngest son's in-laws) and we are going to Anselmo Vineyards for dinner to celebrate two birthdays, mine (again) and our son's mom-in-law. I love multiple celebrations with family and loved friends!

Happy birthday Karen!!!!

Hello. My name is Carrie, and I...I....still like oaked Chardonnay. (Please don't judge.)

Thank you all for your well-intentioned comments on my lunch yesterday. Lunch is here in Germany the main meal of the day, on the other hand breakfast and dinner are relatively poor. Breakfast is usually a slice of wholemeal bread with cottage cheese, butter and jam, fresh fruits and 1 to 2 cups of coffee. In the evening some yogurt with fresh fruit or a sandwich with cheese or sausage are on the table. Dinner like yours is very seldom around here. Today at noon, there was braised chicken breasts with 40 cloves of garlic and cooked saffron rice. For dessert cooked Quark dumplings tossed in poppy-sugar mixture with roasted plums.

I've eaten Quark in Germany (many years ago) but I think it is unknown here in the U.S. Kind of like a cross between sour cream and yoghurt? A bit like crème fraiche. Looks like a tasty sweet snack, I would never think of roasting plums!

Carnivores in town today. Grilled T bone and grilled coarse polenta sauced with portobello's sauteed with cippolini, shallots, deglazed with Marsala and topped with goat's milk gorgonzola composed butter. All preceded by avocado halves filled with homemade caviar. I'm nervous because although I eat meat, it's not my fave when served hot.

Drew Hall wrote:A nice hunk of Bucheron with crusty Marco Polo bread and a really nice, cheap, Loire Sauvignon Blanc while watching the Orioles lose to the Yanks....the food, wine and game were very good although the O's lost. Did I mention that the O's lost?

Heinz Bobek wrote:Thank you all for your well-intentioned comments on my lunch yesterday. Lunch is here in Germany the main meal of the day, on the other hand breakfast and dinner are relatively poor.

Hmm, I apologize; how did I ever spend time in your country without realizing that? Thanks for correcting my ignorance. And it's a good practice, you're healthier than we who tend to eat more later in the day are.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Heinz Bobek wrote:Thank you all for your well-intentioned comments on my lunch yesterday. Lunch is here in Germany the main meal of the day, on the other hand breakfast and dinner are relatively poor.

Hmm, I apologize; how did I ever spend time in your country without realizing that? Thanks for correcting my ignorance. And it's a good practice, you're healthier than we who tend to eat more later in the day are.

If you're eating at restaurants of course you can have a lighter lunch and a heavier dinner. But with my genealogy I found some fifth cousins who lived in their farmhouse near Ulm, and we visited for a few days. If you don't eat hearty at lunch, then you're going to starve at dinner! I suppose we made a parallel observation in England, if you forget to stop for tea at 3, you will be starving when the restaurants open at 8.

Cooking for the week tonight... Round 2 of the duck and olive pastilla (this time with non-vinegared olives from TJ), and a big pot of goulash soup (beef, fennel, potatoes, broth, bay leaves, and lots of paprika).

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:Round 2 of the duck and olive pastilla (this time with non-vinegared olives from TJ)

Better. Still an 'under-performing' recipe... just doesn't give a strong impression of anything, it's not ducky enough, the seasoning is muddled, so, unless the rest of it hits me better than the first serving, I think this recipe goes in the round file. Live and learn.

I haven't posted many food photos in the past few weeks. A combination of busy-ness and iOS6 breaking the FTP program that I used to upload my dinner shots to our Web server have slowed me down.

Last night's dinner was enough of a visual and taste treat, though, that I made the effort to transfer the photo to my desktop for resizing and loading. Here it is ... A lighter variation on eggplant parmigiana, modified from a Mario Batali recipe with fresh garden eggplant and tomatoes, fresh locally made mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano. The fresh basil leaves blackened almost instantly where they hit the molten cheese ... they look frostbit, but they're actually burned.

Note also the serving dish: It's a retro Corningware casserole that Mary spotted in a neighborhood yard sale for 25 cents.